Sunday, May 23, 2010

I am almost done with this little baby sweater! I've just got the finishing around the edges to do.

This is Helena from the Summer 08 Knitty. I'm using Knit Picks CotLin in Kohlrabi. I bought the yarn to make a sweater for me and then decided I would never wear that color. Into the stash it went.

This sweater has been somewhat of an adventure, as I started it shortly after I moved in with D and most of my knitting stuff was hiding in boxes somewhere. I managed to find needles, but nothing to tell me what size they were. So, I just started knitting. And I didn't knit a gauge swatch. All seems to be well though, as it is definitely a baby size!

It should be done by the end of the week and there will be more pictures to come!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

56 wedding invitations! Ready to be mailed. I got an e-mail yesterday afternoon that our wedding invitations were ready and I could pick them up if I wanted to. I dropped everything (which was a plan to go for a run and then tap class) and D and I drove to Richfield. I spent part of today stuffing envelopes, affixing stamps and mailing labels, and just plain admiring how lovely they are.

We walked down to the mail box on the corner and dropped them in tonight Well, 55 of them anyway. The 56th is going to Denmark and requires some special handling.

Martha Stewart would have told me to go to the post office and ask to have them "hand canceled" but I was too excited to get them in the mail. I was quite disappointed when I saw that they won't be picked up until 4:00 tomorrow. With any luck, maybe a few people nearby will get them as early as Friday. Yippee!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

The Shepherd's Harvest was a lot of fun, but I've completely forgotten to post about the event I can hardly wait for each year...the St. Paul Crafstravaganza. Ever since I got engaged, I've been waiting patiently for this event and refused to allow anything else to mess with my calendar that day. I knew that I would get many of the gifts for the special people doing special wedding related things for me at this event. No Yankee candle gifts from me!

I have nothing against Yankee candles. In fact, my sister gave me a Yankee candle as one of my thank you gifts for one of her showers. I loved it.

I post these pictures with some reluctance. I'm fairly certain that most of the people I bought stuff for don't read this blog, but I won't say who gets what.

My mom, Gigi and I got up bright and early and headed to the St. Paul Craftstravaganza right when it opened. I got the last free goodie bag and all three of us got a free pound of Peace Coffee. Score!

The soaps smelled so good! Soap seems to be my weakness. Perhaps it is because it is something I know I will use but I always seem to leave every craft show with a bar of soap. This has to stop as I only have so much space to store it. But, since today was all about other people, I picked up two of the best smelling bars. I'm accessorizing the soaps with the glass dish from 7two7 Glass. The recipient can use this as a soap dish, jewelry dish, or whatever she wishes.

I was super excited to get over to Adam Turman's booth. I bought a few prints from him a few years ago. I think wall purchases are now something I should make in conjunction with D so I didn't actually buy anything, but I love to look. Right next door to him was Giraffe . They were selling coasters using his artwork and I bought two sets.

The bicycle themed set.

The Minneapolis themed set.

Once you find out who I gave these to you will think I am so clever!

Nearby was Marti Nelson Potter. I love pottery. My dream is to someday have a set of dishes that are all pottery. I suppose registering for dishes at Crate and Barrel defeated that purpose. Oh well. I purchases a necklace and little dish from her. It's called a soap dish, but I think it could serve other purposes. I use little bowls to house my jewelry. The recipient of these two gifts is very creative. I'm sure she'll find a fun use for it.

Gigi and I were both drawn to the work from Lawrenz Jewelry. We each got a necklace from her. This necklace is made from neck of a wine bottle. It was tumbled and polished and voila! Lovely. This one's all for me.

My last purchase was a bergamot, pink grapefruit and mango scented candle. Each layer is a different scent. This is from cibio candle. It smells delicious.

By this point, we were hungry but it wasn't quite lunch time yet. We headed over to the Longfellow Grill and shopped at Corazon until it became a respectable lunch time (11 a.m.). Corazon is my favorite gift shop in the Twin Cities. The greeting card selection is fab. These earrings will soon belong to someone else. I'll admit...they are for my sister. She picked them out. No surprise come wedding shower day for her.

I still have some more gifts to buy but the St. Paul Craftstravganza was very good to me. Next year I won't have the wedding as an excuse to go nuts buying stuff, but there is always something coming up. I can't wait.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

My mom, Gigi, the Little Guy, and I all headed to Lake Elmo for the Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival today. Once again, it was a cold, windy day. That did not deter us. My lack of a camera did prevent me from taking any photos of the sheep, llamas, alpacas, and the incredibly cute 3-day old goat.

Here's the loot I picked up.

My first purchase was this lovely blue yarn. The color just caught my eye and I had to have it. 463 yards of superwash merino/nylon blend. The color is Blueberry Patch and it is from Karen Berglund. I also bought some yummy rhubarb leather from her (think fruit roll-up). So good. I could eat that all day.

The next stop was Jennie the Potter. I love her work. I purchased a lovely necklace and some stitch markers.

Then I splurged and bought this knitting bowl. The yarn comes through the opening so your ball of yarn stays in one place. It is already being used.

Other than some fudge, that's all I bought. Once I added that bowl to my purchases, I knew I was done for the day. My mom bought me this fun soap though.

I love how it has its own little nest.

The rest of the weekend will be quiet. It's sort of a wedding planning hiatus weekend. We have a Twins game tomorrow, to which I plan to wear long underwear. I was so cold today and Shepherd's Harvest and at the Twins game on Wednesday. I just don't want to be cold anymore.

Gigi has Wednesday off! I can't wait to spend some time with my Maid of Honor and hopefully do some fun wedding shopping!